Beijing Mayor Liu Qi said Monday that the city is expecting more multinationals to set up research and development centers in Beijing.

The mayor said this at a meeting with President Okamura Tadashi of Japanese company Toshiba and his party.

Liu said that many internationally large companies have set up their own research and development centers in the Chinese capital for further cooperation and business advancement.

Beijing is speeding up the development of its new and hi-tech industries, which contributed a large proportion to the city's 11 percent economic growth rate last year.

Okamura said the company is planning to promote its Beijing lab, founded last April, to be one of the overseas technical centers following those in Britain and the United States.

Toshiba has set up some 20 joint ventures and wholly-owned enterprises in China since 1991, with a total investment of 6 billion yuan (US$723 million) and more than 10,000 employees.

(Xinhua 05/28/2001)